Yoshino's Gathering
by Azurknight
Summary: Sequel to Yoshino's Dedication. Another short story for Yoshino and Shido.


Yoshino's Gathering

It has been a little over two months since Shido proposed to Yoshino. Ever since that day, Yoshino has spent hours staring at her engagement ring and fantasizing about the upcoming wedding. Yoshinon would make things awkward by saying things like.

"I can't wait for the honeymoon, hehehehhe."

Which makes Yoshino blush like a red beet, and causes her mind to wander. At the moment, Yoshino is spending the day out on the town, reading books at the library. She is reading to improve her reading skills since she wants to read t stories to her future child. While she is preparing herself for that day, Yoshino still doesn't feel ready enough to even consider having child yet. While reading books, Yoshino encounters a story about people coming together. She takes an interest in this because of the idea of friends and family gathering together to be thankful for what they have and enjoy a feast together, makes her happy. Yoshino thinks about it on the walk home, and looks at Yoshinon as she says.

"Yoshinon, I think we should do this."

Yoshinon looks back at her friend and agrees.

"Yeah, and we should rub your man in their faces."

"Yoshinon!"

"I'm kidding; you've got no sense of humor."

Yoshino dislikes it when the other girls show jealousy around her since it makes her feel left out. This is one of the reasons she wishes to have a gathering like this. The other being that she wants to have a day where she can to remind herself that she still has plenty of friends that she can rely on.

Later at home, Yoshino is preparing dinner for Shido. She is making a recipe from a new cookbook that she bought called "Traditional family meals". She has bought a couple of new cook books to help expand her horizons when it comes to the kitchen. Shido loves cooking on his days off, but Yoshino wants to find more things to try. Ever since her wife training, Yoshino has become much more confident in herself, and can't wait to become Shido's official wife.

Yoshino is cooking a simple meal of baked chicken strips and a salad, with ice cream as dessert. Yoshino doesn't cook fancy food, but she does her best to give her fiancé a nice smelling meal to come home to. As she cooks, Yoshino thinks.

" _To think that years ago when we met, Shido was the one cooking for me."_

Yoshino is happy with her life at the moment, but wants everyone to be happy. She is also very good at cooking with one hand. Shido arrives home shortly before she finishes cooking. He greets his fiancé by hugging her from behind causing her to blush. Shido notices this and is a little concerned.

"Did I startle you, Yoshino?"

Yoshino shakes her head rapidly, but the truth is, she isn't fully used to him touching her as a woman yet. Yoshinon can't help but comment.

"Yoshino wants you to…"

Yoshino's face glows red as she covers the puppet's mouth with her hand. Shido then hugs her and says to her.

"Yoshino, if you want affection from me, you don't even need to ask."

Yoshino's face turns less red, but she is still blushing as she reciprocates Shido hug by putting her arms around him. Moments later, Shido sniffs the air and asks.

"Is something burning?"

Yoshino's eyes widen as she realizes.

"Oh no! Dinner!"

Yoshino forgot about the chicken in the oven, and when she checks on it, the chicken is burned and tough. Yoshino has a look of disappointment, but Shido steps up and decides to fix the situation. He takes off the jacket of his suit, rolls up his sleeves, and grabs a knife. He asks Yoshino to fix some rice while he fixes the chicken problem. He cuts off the burned skin off the chicken, cuts it up in smaller chunks, and then mixes the chicken with the salad. So, they have chicken salad with rice for dinner. Yoshino is a little disappointed at first, but Shido assures her that it was an accident, and adds.

"Remember, before I got my job, I was the cook. It feels good to do it again. Hahaha, I guess I should be thanking you."

Yoshino puts her smile back on and tells Shido about her idea. He likes it, but has to ask.

"Is there any particular reason you want to do this?"

Yoshino doesn't want Shido to know about the jealous looks she gets from the other girls. So she says.

"I just want to get everyone together, that's all."

Shido doesn't question it of course. So during dessert, Yoshino makes a list of the things she needs for the gathering. She wants it held in a couple of weeks; which is good considering that Shido is going to need Kotori's help with the preparations.

The other girls, Tohka, Miku (although she does love Yoshino), the twins, and Origami have shown clear signs of jealousy towards Yoshino since Shido chose her over them, but he still cares. They can hold conversations with Yoshino, until Shido comes into it. At that point, the girls try to hide their jealousy out of care, but it soon erupts into an argument, but the funny part is, Yoshino isn't even part of the argument.

Yoshino invites all of the people she wants to attend, Shido, with Kotori's help, gets the arrangements prepared; which is renting out a building that is big enough for everyone to fit into with room to move, and gathering the food which will need to be enough for over ten people. Despite the amount needed, Yoshino decided to cook the food herself.

Kotori, using her Ratatoskr connections, rented out the restaurant that Shido took Tohka on their first date. Not only does this allow all of the guests room, but gives Yoshino access to the kitchen. Yoshino has even picked up another cookbook for this occasion. Shido is doing his best to gather what Yoshino asked him to get; which includes ham, potatoes, canned pumpkin, pie crust, corn, milk, cider, and some other things.

With everything ready, the time has come for Yoshino's idea to come together. She arrives at the empty restaurant hours before anyone else. She does this so that she can get the food ready for everyone arrives. She is doing fine on her own, but to her surprise, Shido arrives a little later to check on her. He enters the restaurant, and goes into the kitchen, but he gives her a notice that he's here before hugging her this time. She's getting ready to cook the ham when he hugs her from behind. She still blushes, but isn't as flushed this time, so she continues her cooking. Shido sees all the stuff she has laid out and decides to help her. At first, Yoshino is a little hesitant to let Shido help, but Yoshinon is the one that says it.

"Hey bub, Yoshino wants to do this herself!"

Shido looks at Yoshinon, and retorts.

"Well I want to help my future wife, bunny."

"Hoho, touché, Shido."

Shido helps Yoshino by aiding with the preparations of the other dishes, peeling the vegetables, opening the cans, and getting the ovens preheated. Yoshino looks at Shido as he helps her, but still lets her have her moment, and thinks with a smile.

"I don't think I could have asked for a better person to spend my life with."

Yoshino hasn't forgotten about her ham, and immediately gets back to it. After hours of cooking, Yoshino and Shido get all the food and drinks set up outside on a large table that was brought in for this occasion. Alterations were made to the dining area to make it more suitable for this occasion. The setup looks great, thanks to the two lovers, and the others will arrive within the hour. Yoshino changes into a simple, yet pretty, white dress with green ribbons, with white high heels.

Tohka, Kurumi, Kotori, Origami, Mana, Miku, the Twins, and others all attend this gathering. The conversation is good, the food is good, and the atmosphere feels happy. Yoshino feels good about this; her desire for a friendly gathering is a success. Shido walks over to her after speaking with Kotori and Mana, and tells her.

"Yoshino, I'm proud of you. Your idea turned out great, and everyone looks like their having a good time."

Shido puts his arm around Yoshino's arm and gets a little closer to her. Yoshino begins to blush a little and looks him in the face. He smiles with his eyes closed at her, and she can't help but kiss him on the lips, but this proves to be a bad idea. It's not so much that she kisses him in front of the other girls, but it starts the chain of events. Tohka is a little jealous as she says.

"I wish I could have been the one he chose."

Origami is standing next to Tohka when she says this, and gets a little miffed as she retorts.

"If Shido chose a different girl, it would have been me, not you."

Miku walks over to the two girls and says.

"No, darling would have chosen me, but I wouldn't mind "company"."

This causes the three girls to start arguing. Kaguya goes over to break it up.

"Hey, we're here to have a good time, not…"

The three actually join together and push Kaguya out of the way, and they say, in unison.

"Stay out of this!"

Kaguya actually gets pushed into Yuzuru, who is eating a piece of pie, and she drops her plate, gets irritated, and says.

"Outburst, I was eating that piece of pie!"

Yuzuru picks up her piece of pie off the floor, and throws it. It hits Miku in the face and causes Kurumi to chuckle a little. Miku hears this, and looks at Kurumi with her eye twitching.

"So, you thought that was funny?"

Miku grabs a glass of cider that is sitting on a nearby table and throws the liquid at Kurumi, which gets her wet. Now Kurumi gets irritated as she says, deadly serious.

"You're going to regret doing that."

It's at this point in time that everyone should feel lucky since the girls powers are sealed and that they can't cause this much damage. Kurumi takes the mashed potatoes on her plate and attempts to throw them at Miku, but accidently hits Origami instead. Not long after, the other girls begin throwing food at each other, and Yoshino is getting upset. She tries to stop it, but she can't raise her voice enough, so Yoshinon tries to do it.

"Hey! Cut it out, you hussies!"

From out of nowhere, Yoshino is hit in the face with a glass plate that breaks and cuts her on the cheek a little. She sees that the plate is actually from the big table, looks over at it, and sees that the hard work she did went to waste. Yoshino begins to cry and screams; this allows some of her powers to come back, and she freezes the room by accident (she is not wearing her astral dress). The other girls stop their food fight, and Yoshino runs into the kitchen crying. Shido runs into the kitchen after her. The other girls wonder what happened, and then the sound of someone slamming their fist against the wall echoes through the room. It's Mana, and she has a disappointed look on her face. Kotori is standing next to her with her arms crossed. Mana looks at the girls with their clothes dirty, and tells them.

"I hope you're real proud of yourselves."

Kotori adds in.

"Yeah, you really hurt her feelings."

Mana and Kotori were the only ones not participating in the food fight, and are disgusted that this happened. Kotori explains.

"Yoshino went through a lot of trouble for this gathering, and you can't a little jealousy slide for that?"

Even though they didn't show it clearly, the twins and Kurumi are in fact jealous of Yoshino. The other girls look at the ground with shamed looks on their faces. Kotori, while a little jealous herself, has been one of Yoshino and Shido's biggest supporters. Mana just wants her brother to be happy, so she's never shown jealousy towards Yoshino, and has even given her some advice. Shido's two sisters leave the restaurant.

Inside the kitchen, Yoshino is sitting in a fetal position behind one of the countertops. Shido walks over to her and sits next to her. He puts his arms around her shoulders and rubs her head to help calm her down. After a couple minutes, Yoshino calms down a little, but is still clearly upset; she says through her tears.

"I just..."sniff" wanted everyone "sniff" to be happy again."

Shido continues to rub her head and tells her.

"Yoshino…none of this is your fault at all. You didn't do anything wrong."

"Then why did this happen "sniff"."

Shido tries to explain it the best way he can, so he says.

"Well…the others are…well."

Yoshino calms down, but says something that makes Shido a little upset.

"Maybe we should have never started a relationship."

Shido is ready to counter that, but Yoshinon actually bumps into Yoshino's face, and tells her.

"Cut that out! You love Shido, and Shido loves you. That's how it is, and that's how it should be."

Shido sees the cut on Yoshino's face, so he grabs a paper towel and wipes it since it is bleeding a little. The two stand up and share an embrace as Yoshino is much calmer now. They then kiss again and Yoshino sheds a tear of joy this time. Shido has actually known about Yoshino getting jealous looks, but he didn't want to bring it up unless she was really hurt since he trusts the other girls to not deliberately hurt her feelings.

Outside the kitchen, the other girls a cleaning up the mess that was made by their fighting, but the ice is a problem. They manage to chip it away and get it cleaned up. They clean up the food off the floor, scrub the table, and just get everything back in order. They feel awful about hurting Yoshino's feelings like they did.

A little later, Yoshino and Shido exit the kitchen with Yoshino completely calmed down. The girls walk up to them and apologize for what they did. They still hold envy towards Yoshino, but she deserves to be treated better than that, they think. Also, Mana and Kotori return to the restaurant, but they come with a few boxes of pizza and a couple cases of soda. They figured that this would happen, so they decided to get some more food.

With everything cleaned up, everyone sits down and eat. After some more time of everything getting back in order, Kotori stands up with her can of soda in hand, and announces.

"I think we should give a toast to the happy couple."

Mana stands up in agreement, and adds.

"Yeah, let's show our support. ALL of us."(Looks at the other girls)

The girls stand up, some with forced smiles, but most of them have genuine smiles on their faces. They give Yoshino and Shido a toast, but Mana has a little fun of her own with the girls for their earlier behavior by suggesting.

"Now, let's see the happy couple share a kiss for this pleasant evening."

Shido doesn't mind showing Yoshino affection in this kind of situation, and Yoshino looks at Yoshinon first and asks.

"Should I?"

Yoshinon rubs her little bunny paws together and answers.

"Pucker up, Yoshino, and give him a sloppy one."

Yoshino is still iffy, but she and Shido share a kiss in front of everyone. The other girls have more depressed smiles, but are accepting of the situation. Once they finish, Yoshino is asked a question by Kotori.

"Hey, where did you get the idea for this gathering?"

Yoshino has a more enthusiastic smile as she answers.

"Oh, I was reading a book at the library about stories from America, and I saw a story about a holiday they celebrate called Thanksgiving. I liked the idea of it, so I wanted to get everyone together, so that we could get along better. (Gets a little sadder) That's what I hoped for anyway."

When the other girls hear this, they realize that Yoshino has been considerate about their feelings as much as Shido has. They also realize that Yoshino just wants everyone to be happy even though she has a lot on her mind. They all apologize again, and they agree to do this again once per year. But next time, the other girls want to make the preparations.

Years later, Yoshino, her husband, Shido, and their daughter, Miyuki, are all in the same restaurant with the same gathering being thrown. Miyuki is three years old at this point, and is the current center of attention for everyone. Mana is no longer around, so this one is more dedicated to her memory. Yoshino had plenty of help with the preparations since she wanted to do it this year. Miyuki is shy around others, but she has Yoshinon to help. She is wears the puppet on her left hand like her mother, and talks with her frequently. Shido is a sad that Mana is no longer around, but he smiles whenever his daughter, who he loves with all of his heart. Yoshino walks over to her husband and asks him.

"Shido, are you okay?"

Shido doesn't realize it, but a tear is running down his left eye. He says.

"I'm fine, just little sad is all. Hey, Yoshino?"

"Yes?"

Shido holds her, now free, left hand and says.

"If we have another daughter, I want to name her, Mana."

Yoshino nods her head in agreement and they watch their daughter eat a piece pie, with Yoshinon holding her fork for her, with a big happy grin.

 **Author's note- I'm so happy that I got this one done in time for the holiday. There will be multiple Xmas ones coming soon and I'll get them done before that holiday as well. I will be more diligent for the Xmas ones. Think of it as my Xmas present to my readers.**


End file.
